The Comics Studies Society invites submissions of scholarly paper proposals for its first annual conference, “MIND THE GAPS! The Futures of the Field,” to be held from August 9-11th, 2018, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

This inaugural conference seeks to bring together scholars, artists, and other members of the international Comics Studies community for critical conversations about the futures of the field, in all its multidisciplinary and transcultural formations. Presentations should focus on gaps and opportunities in existing scholarship and may choose to address one or more of the following questions:

What are the overlooked, understudied, and emerging areas of comics studies? ▪ How might comics studies expand its methodologies? What disciplines should comics studies engage with more fully? ▪ How can comics studies foreground issues of representation, equity and justice? ▪ How might new technologies and platforms change the way we define, read, teach, draw, and write about comics? ▪ What are the significant challenges and opportunities for the futures of comics studies?